


Everything Stays

by xanemarths



Series: 200 Years of (Holy) War [6]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Genre: Accidental Deadnaming, Angst with a Happy Ending, Coming Out, Family Reunions, Gen, Nonbinary Character, Trans Male Character, accidental misgendering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 15:56:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16267499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xanemarths/pseuds/xanemarths
Summary: The day they found the statue under Velthomer Castle, Arthur went absolutely fucking ballistic.In which family reunions happen, but not in the way that anyone could have expected.





	Everything Stays

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been slowly on and off working on this for... I actually forget how long, but maybe almost a year? But I finally finished it last night, and gave it an extra layer of Polish to Bring It Up To Date.
> 
> If you know me or have read older fics by me you may know that I care about the Freege-Velthomers a lot. Especially Azel and Arthur. The headcanon of Arthur being a trans man is also ssssssssuuuuuper important to me, as a trans man myself. And if no one will write the Family Reunion fic I want, then I'll do it Myself,

The day they found the statue under Velthomer Castle, Arthur went absolutely fucking ballistic.

Until then, he’d prided himself on keeping up the appearances of a cool head, too. Sure, his faceoffs with the rest of the Freege family had left him boiling inside, and not even Tinny ( _especially_ not Tinny) quite knew the extent of how much he’d been hurting. He had a reputation to uphold, after all, and that reputation was one of a relatively cheerful, friendly, and funny fellow! Nothing in the world could crack that mask!

Nothing, that was, except finding his long-missing father frozen in stone.

It took Sety and Fee’s (mostly Fee’s) best efforts to drag him away, wailing and screaming and kicking all the while, trying desperately to get back to that room. Leaf came down, took one look at the statue, and announced that he knew just what to do; it took at least a week to reach Sara, and another week for her to arrive at Velthomer, Kia staff in hand. Later, Arthur would be told how his father had fallen in a near-dead faint after being released from his stone prison; how his first words had been a desperate, hoarse call for Tiltyu, for his children.

He'd purposefully avoided being there, of course. Those who knew didn't question, and those who didn't know knew it wasn't their place to comment. For the next few days, Azel was kept under careful watch of the healers, trying to make sure he suffered no ill effects from being trapped in his stone prison for so long. Visitors were carefully limited; even _Tinny_ wasn’t allowed in for fear the shock might be too much, and Arthur hated how grateful he was for the chance to avoid seeing his own long-missing father.

He stays away, even on the very day his father was to be released from the care of the healers, tucking himself away in a quiet hallway with a book and ignoring the questioning looks of anyone who passed. He neither needed nor _wanted_ Sety’s sad sympathy, nor Celice’s encouragement, nor the overwhelming despair of others that seemed to say “at least _you_ can get _your_ father back.”

How awful of a child was he, to have wanted his father back all these years and then suddenly never want to see him again?

At least Tinny would have _her_ father back. Perhaps he'd just… slip from the scene, now, back to Silesia.

As though he'd never been.

But that would be unfair to Tinny, and deep down he knew that he wouldn't have the heart to ever leave his sister again. So he stayed there, huddled in that hallway, and _waited._

“Tinny?”

Ah. Probably one of the healers, now, coming to tell Tinny that she was free to visit their father now. His eyes don't even glance up from his book, even though what he's doing is more _scanning_ than _reading_ , merely an activity to keep him occupied.

“Tinny, is that really…”

Arthur frowns, accidentally dog-earring his page as he wonders what sort of healer would be saying that. Surely all the healers in Belhalla knew who his sister was by now, right?

And then Tinny speaks up.

“ _Father!_ ”

The reaction is instantaneous and involuntary. His arms wrap around his chest protectively, legs folding up against himself as far as they'd go. He has to physically clamp his mouth shut to keep his teeth from audibly chattering, and his stomach churns violently as one thought preyed on his mind.

He hadn't recognized his _own father's_ voice. What sort of child _is_ he?

Slowly, he tears himself away from his panicked state and peeks around the corner. Tinny and his father are still standing there, in the middle of the room, wrapped up together in a tight hug. There are obvious tears streaking down Tinny’s cheeks, he can tell even at this distance, and by the way Azel’s shoulders are shaking, his father is probably crying, as well. They stay wrapped up in each other's arms for a few long minutes, before finally pulling apart just enough for Azel to cup Tinny’s face in his hands.

“Tinny… oh, Tinny, you were still so tiny when I left…” he chokes out, eyes shining far too brightly in the lights, voice brimming with emotions - love, and longing, and guilt. “You've grown so much… oh, Tinny, I'm so proud of you! I wish I'd been there for you, I _should_ have been there for you, I've heard of Freege and I'm so, so sorry-”

Tinny cuts him off with some wet mumble that Arthur can't really decipher, but whatever it is must make sense to their father, because he stops apologizing and just hugs her tight again. They stay that way for another long moment, and watching it is actually kind of sweet and tender, until Azel just has to, fucking, take a sledgehammer to the structure of everything Arthur had ever worked for and blow up the remains with Bolganone.

“...Where's Theo?” Azel asks, pulling back and gently gripping Tinny’s shoulders. When she only stares blankly at him, he elaborates. “Your big sister - is she with you? Do you know where she is?”

Good Crusaders’ ghosts, who knew that someone could stab you with flaming knives while their voice still dripped with concern! Something inside Arthur slowly compacts upon itself, and he prays to whichever god decides to listen that Tinny wouldn't connect the dots, that she'd still think of him as her brother and not some sham in disguise as a boy. For a moment, Tinny hesitates, and he can almost _see_ the gears in her head turning.

“No,” she says, finally, and he almost breathes a sigh of relief - “But I have seen my _brother!_ ”

-Oh gods, oh no, please no, anything but _that_ , he took it back gods, don't let Tinny connect the dots and don't let her talk about him, either!

Azel pauses, looking like he'd just been shocked. “Your brother?” he squeaks out, voice pitching up an octave at the end. Tinny nods emphatically, and Arthur swears that there’s an extra emphasis on any words related to his name and gender when she speaks again.

“Yes! My dear _brother, Arthur. He_ helped rescue me from Freege, you know!”

Azel nods back, slowly, still looking uncharacteristically pale. Arthur mentally curses Tinny out for recognizing him, for outing him, for even mentioning his _existence_ to their father. It would've been better to just let Azel think Theodosia was _dead_ , and at this point she may as well be.

“...Right. That's, wonderful, Tinny; I'm glad you had family to help you,” Azel says, faintly. “Say, speaking of Arthur, do you know where I might be able to find him?”

 _Don't you fucking sell me out,_ Arthur thinks really hard at Tinny, hoping it would somehow open up their secret sibling telepathic link and she'd hear him and not say anything to their father. Tinny, having suddenly turned into some capricious being, ignores him.

“Arthur? Yeah! He's right behind that corner over there. I think he's trying to avoid you, which is rather silly of him because he was absolutely devastated when we found you; I thought he'd have seen you immediately…”

Arthur mentally drops a curse so foul that, if his mom were still alive, he'd probably be grounded for a week, and ducks back behind the corner to where he can't be seen, hunching tightly in on himself. He can still hear their father give Tinny a very quiet “thank you”, and the ringing of his feet on the stone floor as he rounds the corner. There's a long, awkward pause after that, where his father said nothing and Arthur refuses to speak.

“...So, you're Arthur, right?” Azel finally asks, and Arthur huffs in response, refusing to make eye contact. “...Would you mind if I sat next to you?”

Yes, he would, very much; his body betrays him, though, scooting to the side just enough for his father to have a place to sit next to him. His father folds his legs under himself as he sits, and the silence that stretches between them afterwards felt like an eternity.

“You know,” Azel begins first, moving his fingers as though to fidget before finding nothing, and stopping, “your mother and I - we had plans that, if ever we were to have a son, we'd give him a name that started with an A. Azel and Tiltyu, and all of that; we thought it'd be a cute naming scheme.” He turns to face Arthur, the slightest, smallest curve of a smile appearing on his face. “But then, I guess, you probably figured that out for yourself, didn't you?”

It's more of a statement then a question, but there's no accusation behind it, and Arthur finds his mouth opening and closing like a fish as he processes what his father is hinting at. “It's a lovely name, Arthur,” Azel continues, dropping his gaze. “It suits you. I never really felt the need to change my name myself, but...”

This scene had played out in his mind hundreds of thousands of times, but never like _this_. “No,” Arthur begins, hoarsely, his voice cracking with emotion. “Stop. Wait?”

Azel freezes, looking back up at Arthur once more. “Is everything all right, Arthur?” he asks, and Arthur just can't _stand_ the concern in his voice, the way he says his _name-_

“This isn't how it's supposed to go,” he blurts out, desperation building in his voice. “You’re, you're not supposed to - it shouldn't be this easy, you aren't supposed to get my name right in one go, it's supposed to take a while to stop thinking of me as your _precious little daughter_ , and-”

“Why?”

 _Gods_ , did he ever stop that gentle and loving concern? “Because,” Arthur starts, mentally grasping at straws for reasons until he can come up with nothing but, “because." His shoulders drop. "That's how these things are supposed to go.”

His father stares at him for a long moment, before leaning his head back against the wall. “I don't know,” he murmurs, gazing up towards the ceiling. “Maybe I'm a hypocrite for saying this - I never could ask my brother to start using the right pronouns - but, I don't think anyone deserves to be misgendered.”

At first, Arthur doesn't truly understand - and then something clicks together in his head; the comment his father had made about name changing, and now _this_. “Wait. What?”

Azel takes his time to answer. He sits up straight once more, and his fingers start fidgeting with the end of his tunic. “Ah. I suppose you would've been too young to really remember, or understand,” he starts, a hesitant smile creeping onto. his? face. “I’m not cis, either. The concept of a gender binary never quite… clicked, for me, I guess?” They lean back, once again letting their head rest against the stone wall. “I was fine with some things. It was okay to keep my hair shorter, and it was fine to dress in tunics and such, and it was okay to be called a brother - but full conformance to the standard never suited me. I was born a boy, and I could pass for one - but I didn't really feel like one. Or want to be one.”

“Oh,” says Arthur, very softly and quietly. It's all he can really think of to say in this situation, really - what with years of assumptions and fears all shattering to pieces. “Oh.”

It's silent again, for what feels like an eternity, before Azel sighs and starts to speak. “I'm sorry, Arthur,” they say, with this gut-wrenching anguish in their voice that tore at Arthur's heart, “I'm sorry, that I abandoned you into a world where you were made to feel unwanted, and that I'd - that I'd hate you for being my _son_ , and-”

“That’s not your _fault_ ,” Arthur interjects, cutting off his father's tangent quite harshly - and suddenly it's as if he were a child again, throwing himself into his father’s arms and sobbing and wailing. Azel freezes for a moment, but their arms very quickly wrap around Arthur, holding him close and rubbing his back until he calms.

“Oh, my son…”

And Arthur sobs again, because the words feel better than he could have ever dreamed.

**Author's Note:**

> The concept of Azel being frozen in stone under Velthomer Castle comes from Kaga's Dream Scenarios, I believe? The original concept had Julia as the one to free them from their stone prison, but since Sara and the Kia Staff exist as of fe5, I figured I'd mention that instead.
> 
> I rrrrrrrreally hate deadnaming characters as a general rule, for like, obvious reasons, but, uh. [This Specific Cover of "Dear Theodosia"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmNBOHbCw8I) was Really Azelcore to me.


End file.
